My major complaint is that it's too short. Mami was likeable and cool enough, so seeing her get her head chomped off was pretty shocking. But she just had too little screentime for me to seriously care about her. Maybe I wasn't supposed to care, and it was solely to warn the viewers that this series wouldn't be a cakewalk.
And it isn't. Darkness Induced Audience Apathy might even kick in at some point. I will say that the art looks pretty nice and the witch sequences are genuinely cool and artistic.
I'd like to talk more about the characters though.
At first I thought Sayaka was pretty decent, but then her downfall became increasingly frustrating to watch. I liked her at first, since she was actively doing something. That quickly turned into dislike when I saw how she handled her "idealism", and everything about her and those two plot-device characters in their not-Love Triangle. Sayaka's suicidal tendencies and Honor Before Reason attitude before her death cemented her role as my least favorite character of the show.
There was also Kyoko I guess. She was decent enough, but her sudden change in personality, although it did make sense, felt awkward, rushed and like an excuse for Homura to face Walpurgis alone.
Speaking of Homura, Madoka Magica is mostly her story. Her icy behavior was irritating at first, but after it got some cracks she interested me more. The Time-Travel business was a nice twist, though the downside was that we got to see Moemura. Maybe I was supposed to feel sad to see Moemura change into icy and cool Homura, but I was just relieved that a decent character came out of this moe mess. Homura herself is nothing special. She acts stoic, cool and is obsessed with Madoka because she was nice to her. Whee.
Then there's Madoka, the protagonist who doesn't do anything. While Madoka's lack of... doing anything gets justified, it's just no real fun to see a protagonist who does nothing but angst and stand there helplessly. At least there were those other timelines.
I could say quite a lot about Kyubey, but I'll just settle for: "He's interesting and entertaining."
All in all it's a good watch, provided you don't get annoyed over the poor communication and idiocy. While both are justified to an extent, it still doesn't exactly make it more pleasant to watch.
Not groundbreaking, but still pretty good.
-Spoilers ahead-
My major complaint is that it's too short. Mami was likeable and cool enough, so seeing her get her head chomped off was pretty shocking. But she just had too little screentime for me to seriously care about her. Maybe I wasn't supposed to care, and it was solely to warn the viewers that this series wouldn't be a cakewalk.
And it isn't. Darkness Induced Audience Apathy might even kick in at some point. I will say that the art looks pretty nice and the witch sequences are genuinely cool and artistic.
I'd like to talk more about the characters though.
At first I thought Sayaka was pretty decent, but then her downfall became increasingly frustrating to watch. I liked her at first, since she was actively doing something. That quickly turned into dislike when I saw how she handled her "idealism", and everything about her and those two plot-device characters in their not-Love Triangle. Sayaka's suicidal tendencies and Honor Before Reason attitude before her death cemented her role as my least favorite character of the show.
There was also Kyoko I guess. She was decent enough, but her sudden change in personality, although it did make sense, felt awkward, rushed and like an excuse for Homura to face Walpurgis alone.
Speaking of Homura, Madoka Magica is mostly her story. Her icy behavior was irritating at first, but after it got some cracks she interested me more. The Time-Travel business was a nice twist, though the downside was that we got to see Moemura. Maybe I was supposed to feel sad to see Moemura change into icy and cool Homura, but I was just relieved that a decent character came out of this moe mess. Homura herself is nothing special. She acts stoic, cool and is obsessed with Madoka because she was nice to her. Whee.
Then there's Madoka, the protagonist who doesn't do anything. While Madoka's lack of... doing anything gets justified, it's just no real fun to see a protagonist who does nothing but angst and stand there helplessly. At least there were those other timelines.
I could say quite a lot about Kyubey, but I'll just settle for: "He's interesting and entertaining."
All in all it's a good watch, provided you don't get annoyed over the poor communication and idiocy. While both are justified to an extent, it still doesn't exactly make it more pleasant to watch.